Russian immigrant charged with feeding look-alike poison cheesecake

A Russian native living in Brooklyn allegedly poisoned her look-alike with cheesecake and stole her identity, police say.

The victim, another Russian immigrant who was living in Queens at the time, woke up in 2016 surrounded by pills in a scene set up as though she'd tried to kill herself. Her passport, employment card and cash were all missing.

Viktoria Nasyrova, 42, faces charges of attempted murder, assault and burglary. If convicted, she faces up to 25 years in prison.

Investigators say she laced the cheesecake with a tranquilizer and gave it to the victim.

"Before passing out, the woman's last memory is of seeing the defendant sitting beside her inside her home," says Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.

Brown said investigators tested the cheesecake and found it laced with the Russian tranquilizer Phenazepan. The pills contained the same drug.

The Associated Press reports that Nasyrova also is accused of drugging and killing a woman in her native country before fleeing to New York. She denied those charges in an interview with CBS.

Left-hander James Paxton was acquired by the Yankees from the Seattle Mariners for a trio of prospects Monday, bolstering the thin starting rotation that contributed to New York's loss to Boston in the AL Division Series.

Left-hander James Paxton was acquired by the Yankees from the Seattle Mariners for a trio of prospects Monday, bolstering the thin starting rotation that contributed to New York's loss to Boston in the AL Division Series.